The GfZK collection is constantly being expanded. In 2024, the following works were added:
Lara Almarcegui, Halted Excavation, 2024
HD video, colour, sound
What traces of geological, political and social change can be found beneath the city? In 2024, the GfZK realised a site-specific collaboration with the artist Lara Almarcegui, based in Rotterdam. Since the mid-1990s, a time of construction boom and extensive urban renewal in Europe, Almarcegui has engaged with processes of urban transformation. She is particularly interested in conditions that are not usually the focus of attention, such as wastelands. In Leipzig, Almarcegui explored a building site. For one day, she halted construction work at the location where a new building for the Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde (Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, IfL) is currently being built. Construction work was stopped at the point when the deepest layers of the excavation had been reached. Almarcegui invited the public to join her in the excavation pit to view the uncovered material and historical layers of the city before they were concealed again. At Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz, a site of transformation, the work deals with the urban change brought about by construction.
Andrea Garcia Vasquez, Shapes of Destruction, 2020–22
Wool, latex, fabric, recycled materials, acrylic QR-Code
Shapes of Destruction deals with the destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. By means of Satellite images, Andrea Garcia Vasquez documents deforested regions and works the surfaces into tufted carpets. The objects, which are intended for use, come with a QR code that leads to information on the region concerned. By “interacting” with the landscapes, the user can experience the destruction of habitats and the need for environmental protection. In line with the principle of solidarity economy, part of the sale proceeds go to the NGO Amazon Watch, which campaigns for the protection of the Amazon and the rights of the Indigenous population.